Guest post: Not as the side of truth but as the side of good

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Ophelia Benson

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Originally a comment by Artymorty on When the rights of one group are eroded.

It is pathetic. And it’s a damn terrible shame that so many gender-critical groups didn’t have the foresight to stay away from the legitimately terrible right-wing orgs that wooed them. The Alliance Defending Freedom, the American College of Pediatricians, arrays of neocon/libertarian/Brexit groups, right-wing think tanks, and on and on.

It’s very, very, very hard to get the message across that we’re the good guys when so many of the loudest voices on our side constantly, willingly align themselves with the bad guys.

Whatever calculus people did in their heads to rationalize these dubious alliances, or to keep their objections quiet when they saw them, the math was wrong. It didn’t benefit these gender-critical groups to publicly align themselves with toxic right-wing organizations. And it hasn’t benefited the quiet majority of GC activists to not denounce those ill-advised ties more vocally.

All the logic and reason in the world is on our side, but this war isn’t being fought in the domain of logic and reason. It’s about political image, identity, and tribal affiliation. The gender movement has sold itself not as the side of truth but as the side of good. It’s awfully hard to fight that when so many of its opponents really aren’t good. Tribal allegiance is instinctual, deep-rooted, and liable to shut down any challenge to it the instant it smells danger. Just one connection to the Alliance Defending Freedom is enough for most people to shut out someone who’s trying to get them to change their mind.

I guess it’s a preaching-to-the-choir kind of phenomenon: the kinds of people who’ve already come over to the gender-critical side are the ones who don’t have such a strong tribalistic association with the gender movement, and who are therefore not as bothered by its association with toxic allies like the ADF. They were blind to the fact that to everyone else, that’s the most important thing that’s keeping them from buying into it. The GC early adopters have failed to see that they are the psychological outliers, and that’s why they’re not succeeding at selling their view to the people they most need to get through to — those who are tribally loyal to the left.

It’s just made an already very difficult political pitch even harder to sell.

Comments

2 responses to “Guest post: Not as the side of truth but as the side of good”

  1. Mostly Cloudy Avatar
    Mostly Cloudy

    It’s very, very, very hard to get the message across that we’re the good guys when so many of the loudest voices on our side constantly, willingly align themselves with the bad guys.

    Good point. I still see women who describe themselves as “GC Feminists” online defending Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, even after she turned up at the Unite the Kingdom rally with Tommy Robinson and other fascists.

    https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/nationalist-and-pro-palestine-rallies-flood-the-streets-around-westminster

  2. Artymorty Avatar
    Artymorty

    Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull has crossed so many horrible lines she’s beyond toxic. But her brand has thrived nevertheless, mostly by capitalizing on her critics’ mistakes. She’s got a rabid fanbase that, tribally, will not hear any criticism of their idol. You criticize her, her rabid loyalists set out to attack you. It’s very threatening, and very irrational. And utterly toxic. You criticize Posey Parker, her minions set out, like robots, to find your weakness and destroy you. They don’t even think before they go. They’re automatons, wired up to destroy any danger that might appear in the way of their master. I’ve had very direct conversations with mutliple GCs who stated plainly that they can’t stand KJK but that it’s not worth it to challenge her cult of personality. This is dangerous, people! We shouldn’t be letting a cult of personality take root within the gender critical movement, especially given how small and intimate the movement is. But the key here is: everyone told me PRIVATELY how toxic KJK is. I spoke up publicly against her, citing specific things she said that were wrong and bad, and she egomaniacally insinuated that she could destroy me at will. She was cultivating her cult of personality, revelling in it. No one backed me up. No one called her out for her egomaniacal unhingedness. At least not publicly.

    This is not how a healthy, progressive movement functions.

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